Nereo Diaz, 23, left to right, Elda Diaz, 24, and Luci Diaz, 21, siblings of Victor Diaz, whose body was found in the Pearl Brewery smokestack, hold a photo of him in at Nereo's house. The family is from Chiapas. Wednesday, August 22, 2012.

Photo: BOB OWEN, San Antonio Express-News

Nereo Diaz, 23, left to right, Elda Diaz, 24, and Luci Diaz, 21,...

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Roofing workers continues at the Pearl Brewery where Victor Diaz, whose body was found in the Pearl Brewery smokestack, also was a roofer. Wednesday, August 22, 2012.

Photo: BOB OWEN, San Antonio Express-News

Roofing workers continues at the Pearl Brewery where Victor Diaz,...

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San Antonio police are investigating the death of a man, believed to be a construction worker, who was found at the bottom of a smokestack at the Pearl Brewery on Tuesday, August 21, 2012.

Photo: Eva Ruth Moravec, San Antonio Express-News

San Antonio police are investigating the death of a man, believed...

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Nereo Diaz, 23, left to right, Elda Diaz, 24, and Luci Diaz, 21, siblings of Victor Diaz, whose body was found in the Pearl Brewery smokestack, hold a photo of him in at Nereo's house. The family is from Chiapas. Wednesday, August 22, 2012.

Photo: BOB OWEN, San Antonio Express-News

Nereo Diaz, 23, left to right, Elda Diaz, 24, and Luci Diaz, 21,...

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Family say they believe that the body found in the smokestack at the Pearl Brewery was that of construction worker Victor Diaz, of Chiapas, Mexico. Pcitured is the door leading oiut of the bottom of the somkestack. Other workers said they saw flies around the door and said they smelled a strong odor.

Photo: Bob Owen

Family say they believe that the body found in the smokestack at...

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Octavio Diaz, 2, nephew of Inocencio Victor Rodriguez Diaz, a worker who died after falling into a smokestack at the Pearl Brewery, stands by a collection jar during a barbecue plate sale on Saturday, Aug. 26, to help the family raise funds to take his body to Mexico for burial. Donations can be made by calling 210-514-2701.

“All we want to know is what happened,” said one of his brothers, Nereo Diaz, 23. He said his brother's wife and two children were left without a breadwinner, and the family felt the suit was an appropriate course.

“This family has been tremendously, tremendously harmed,” the family's attorney, Fidel Rodriguez, said. “Mr. Diaz died a very slow and excruciating death.”

Diaz apparently entered the “Boiler House,” which is being converted into a restaurant. From the second floor, there is an entry to what is called a breeching duct, which carried condensation from the boilers, and leads to the inside of the smokestack.

The duct looks like an elevated enclosed walkway from the outside.

A small door at the base of the smokestack was locked from the outside. Diaz's family believes that, after he fell, he may have been alive because it appeared he had taken off his shoes to bang on the door for help.

Why Diaz entered the duct that led to the shaft is unknown.

The Bexar County Medical Examiner has concluded he died of trauma to the head. The full autopsy report is not yet available.

Cervantes said Friday that he knew the accident “wasn't my fault,” adding that a lawyer had told him not to talk about the matter.

Attorney Clark Aspy, representing Tin Star, said the suit left out important details.

Diaz, Aspy said, was supposed to begin working for Cervantes, but “he never actually worked for him.”

Aspy said Cervantes gave Diaz a safety briefing and told him to go up on the roof of the Boiler Room while Cervantes loaded up a forklift with roofing panels. When Cervantes returned, Diaz was nowhere in sight, Aspy said.

“Diaz was supposed to go up on the roof and apparently didn't,” Aspy said. “So Celestino had to put down everything and looked every place he could think of. Then he called whomever referred Diaz to him, and that person and a relative came over to search as well. Nobody could find him because he wasn't where he was supposed to be.”

Aspy said the location of the accident “had nothing to do with the work.” The shaft was accessible only by going inside the Boiler Room, and the walkway was blocked by obstacles, Aspy said.

Diaz was supposed to be on the roof, Aspy said. “He was nowhere near the roof. ... We absolutely deny that we had anything to do with his activity that morning and his accident.”

The family said Diaz had no legal immigration status here but had lived in Atlanta for about 10 years and had arrived in San Antonio on Aug. 11.

Aspy said Tin Star didn't know about Diaz's legal status, and that Cervantes had little to no background information on Diaz, who was one of three laborers Cervantes picked up that day.